Abstract

This thesis investigated the performance of an open loop air-based building integrated photovoltaic/thermal collector (BIPV/T) designed to preheat ERV supply air and to generate electricity. Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERV) have proven successful in cold climates, but in the extreme cold of the Arctic, frequent frosting and defrosting cycles reduce their effectiveness and increase the energy consumption. Thus, by integrating with BIPV/T which preheats the ventilation air, this problem can be reduced while also generating electricity. A finite difference model of the BIPV/T system integrated in a typical potential application was simulated in MATLAB using local weather data and indoor fresh air requirements to obtain system outputs. BIPV/T design parameters such as the tilt angle, and cavity depth were varied, with consideration of using nominal lumber sizes and ease of construction for improved implementation for Arctic residential applications. It was seen that the BIPV/T was able to increase the fresh air temperature supplied to the ERV up to 16°C and helped to reduce the defrosting time up to 7 hours per day. The 40m2 BIPV/T array also produced a considerable amount of electricity up to 33kWh/day and 7.5kWh/day of thermal energy was recovered.
Simulated electrical and thermal energy generated by the BIPV/T system are then compared with the measured energy usage data from a high-performance northern housing prototype located in Nunavik, Quebec. With this comparison the net energy usage is obtained along with the energy savings and was seen to reduce the annual electricity costs over 30% as well as approximately 5.5% of the total energy costs.